Until recently, plaque manufacture was often considered a time consuming and expensive process. In circumstances where the plaque was used for a very limited period of time, such as a plaque mounted on a coffin, the cost of producing an engraved plaque often seemed disproportionate to the benefit derived from having the engraved plaque. In order to overcome the problems with plaque manufacture, the applicant devised a temporary plaque manufacturing apparatus and a method of manufacturing a temporary plaque. The temporary plaque manufacturing apparatus and method of using same are described in detail in the applicant's European Patent number EP 1,437,234, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by way of reference.
EP 1,437,234 describes a method of printing indicia onto a flexible sheet having an adhesive coating on one side of the sheet and thereafter fixing that flexible sheet onto a mounting plate. The mounting plate and flexible sheet, together comprising a temporary plaque, could then be mounted on a coffin or other object in need of a temporary plaque. The apparatus described in EP 1,437,234 was found to produce a particularly aesthetically pleasing temporary plaque in a relatively inexpensive, simple and efficient manner. Furthermore, the temporary plaques manufactured using the method and apparatus described in EP 1,437,234 are perceived as being of high quality and comparable to a plaque that has been engraved.
There is, however, a problem with the temporary plaque manufacturing apparatus described in EP 1,437,234. Specifically, the resiliently deformable flaps 11, 13 have been found to wear down over time thereby reducing the effectiveness of the temporary plaque manufacturing apparatus and reducing the quality of the plaques manufactured thereby. This problem has been found to be particularly acute when different sized plaques are used in the apparatus. Many of the mounting plates will have a raised lip around the periphery of the mounting plate and for smaller mounting plates that do not extend across the entire width of the flap, the raised rim has been found to wear a grove in the flap. Over time, this grove can inhibit the smoothing of the flexible sheet onto the mounting plate thereby adversely affecting the aesthetic appearance of the temporary plaque.
It has been found that a worn flap can cause scores or scratches on the face of the completed plate. In some cases, a worn flap has been found to leave unacceptable air bubbles trapped between the vinyl sheet and the plate due to the fact that the flap is not engaging the plaque in the worn areas. These defects effectively render the temporary plaque useless and results in a waste of time and resources.
It is an object therefore of the present invention to overcome the problem with the known temporary plaque manufacturing apparatus.